Mandelson to launch review of construction industry

Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, is to announce a review of the construction and engineering industries after the recent series of wildcat strikes over foreign workers.

The review, which will take around three to four months to complete, will look at skills shortages in the UK, and examine ways in which British industry could be improved so that it can compete with foreign competitors.

It is being carried out by senior officials in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Unionised workers undertook a series of wildcat strikes on oil refinery construction projects earlier this month following the appointment of an Italian subcontractor to a project at North Killingholme in Lincolnshire. The firm was accused by unions Unite and the GMB of employing exclusively Italian and Portuguese workers at the site, and deliberately excluding British workers.